A sea of tears: the flooded people of South Bangladesh
A sea of tears: the flooded people of South Bangladesh
With ocean levels rising, and shrimp farms proliferating, villages in south Bangladesh are being flooded by the sea. There is no water to drink, so people must search for it daily, writes Tahmima Anam.
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- The Guardian, Saturday 20 June 2009
- Article history
If you look at a map of Bangladesh, you will see that the southern coast has a meandering, indistinct border. This is the home of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, with its strange, submerged trees, its Royal Bengal tigers, and its mythical figures such as Bon-Bibi, goddess and protector of the forest. It is where the delta ends and the sea begins.
Water has been the making and unmaking of Bangladesh. It is the reason the rice grows thick and fast, why the rivers ripple with fish, why the land is carpeted with green. But the water is also cruel. Every year, torrential rains flood villages and farms; rivers break their banks, swallowing great chunks of land, destroying the homes, and the dreams, that are built upon it.
New York carbon clock tracks rising greenhouse emissions
New York carbon clock tracks rising greenhouse emissions
The 21m-high carbon calculator reads 3.6tr tonnes and counting
Pedestrians walk by the world’s first real-time carbon counter which displays greenhouse gases amount in the atmosphere, after it was unveiled by Deutsche Bank outside Penn station in New York. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
Here’s a nice idea: a rolling carbon counter that allows you to see how fast greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere.
It makes sense for two reasons: first that you don’t get greenhouse pea soupers: in other words, you can’t see or smell the main climate-changing gases. We need a visual representation to bridge the imaginative void.
Denmark to power electric cars by wind in vehicle-to-grid experiment
Denmark to power electric cars by wind in vehicle-to-grid experiment
The project will use electric car batteries to store excess energy and feed electricity back into the grid when the weather is calm
- guardian.co.uk, Friday 19 June 2009 16.33 BST
- Article history
Cars could be the solution to the intermittent nature of wind power if a multimillion European project beginning on a Danish island proves successful.
The project on the holiday island of Bornholm will use the batteries of parked electric cars to store excess energy when the wind blows hard, and then feed electricity back into the grid when the weather is calm.
Government trips over own policy
There will be no rebate for solar panels for some months, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has confirmed, after a scheme to massively boost renewable energy was put on hold.
The green energy sector has warned that hundreds of workers could get the sack because of the delay.
The Senate has put off a vote on the Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme until August at the earliest.
It’s a problem for the government, which is struggling to get its climate change agenda up.
Trend towards El Niño strengthens
From The Land The signs of a developing El Niño have strengthened during the past fortnight, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. It says the key indicators for this forecast are a drop in the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) to around -10, further warming of the Pacific and a strong decrease in the strength of Continue Reading →
Murray beyond saving says Young
From the ABC A water scientist has told a parliamentary committee in South Australia that parts of the Murray-Darling should be allowed to die to save other parts of the river system. Professor Mike Young says the best way forward would be to have water flows for the environment controlled by a trust rather than Continue Reading →